My ol’ nemesis

It is summer time once again, time for the rains to pass and of course volunteering with the Red Cross at community events. Well this weekend was an event at Stanford University called Challenge 4 Charity. It is a collection of sporting events surrounded by copious amounts of drinking by 8 leading university’s MBA programs including UCLA, UCI, USC, Berkley, Washington and others. (Editor’s note: These are the same schools that denied me admission a scant few months ago). Each of these schools sent a fair majority of their students in each of their respective MBA programs up for the weekending, up to 200+ from each school. The interesting thing came up when watching these students who are advertised to be the leaders of the future. Many of the team events required team work and planning, not such an easy thing for these chiefs, especially without any Indians to direct. Drama was not unusual in this friendly set of games in fact the pre-eminent thought that went through all of our heads on the volunteer side was the likeness to MTV Real World. Here is a set of students, many of whom have not worked a real job getting ready to hit the job market, well if the right job comes along. Trust me I make this up not, this is from the direct word of mouth of many of our patients. Although I call them kids, many of whom are older than I, but asked about their history a preponderance of them identified world travel between undergraduate and graduate schooling, some even graduating this month and not really having a desire to work.

I look at this attitude and compare it to my company’s very different attitude. At my job it is not unusual to work 12-15 hour days 6 days a week. I would love to say we work hard play hard, but I think it is closer to simply working hard, on the other hand it is the constant pressure that I think gives me the greatest adrenalin rush. I am not sure going back to the relative slow pace of academia would keep me awake. But more of that another time.

This morning I landed in a city that is all too familiar to me. A city where vice wins out over virtue, sins wins out over sincerity, and money wins out over emotion 7 days a week. Yes I speak of my well known city of Las Vegas. Although many identify it as man’s playground maybe due to the amount of time I have spent here I find it to be more of an annoyance than a pleasure. It is ironic that in my last 5 years living in CA, I have spent 4 of my birthdays in this city of sin. While some might find this to be the perfect situation, Vegas becomes much less fun when spent by yourself at a work function. But no matter, my friends have already helped me celebrate last week (see previous entries) and for that was indeed a hoot and a half.

So a quick trip to Vegas until Wednesday when I fly clear across the country to Florida for another quick event I am speaking at. Home by Friday in time to maybe spend some time in my favorite city, well at least the city I call home. More on this city and the trip later. My apologies for the sporadic nature of some of these entries, life at work has been just a bit challenging or at least hectic.

Now tell me that is not cute! 

There is no seeing the ceiling, notice baloons steadily decreasing in size as the culprits began to hyperventilate 

No entrance allowed here! Maybe no exit once I crawl in. 

I have great friends!!

I have said this before but it bears repeating, hell it bears being shouted from all the rooftops between San Jose and San Francisco. My friends Rule! Today I went to my desk like any other day, for today was to be a tough one. Meetings from before the crack of dawn until late in the day. Lots of running around and a good portion of politics as has been creeping into more and more of my events. I turn the corner and stop in my tracks. There waving slightly in my cube from invisible currents and tides of air, was a canopy comprised of crepe paper and balloons covering my entire cube. A memory of a doorway was all that I could see, before some slight cutting allowed myself a small entrance to crawl through. Stickers with witty sayings like Happy Birthday adorned every possible surface from white board to monitor from mouse to keyboard. Party hats rested on awards, monitor, ornamental stuffed animals and walls. Confetti in the shapes of balloons and gifts literally covered every horizontal surface the eye could see while the view of the ceiling and lights was completely obliterated by a new fake ceiling.

It takes me a second in dumbfounded shock because wait a minute; it’s not my birthday yet. But like the past 5 years since I have been in California I have had to travel on my birthday. Well my friends decided not to take any chances and decided to get me early. I then went the entire day with dozens of people whom I know and even more I didn’t know wishing me Happy Birthday. The first few I explained ironically enough its not my birthday yet, but I decided to simply say thank you as the explanations were getting to be tiring. I later found out that it took them over two hours to complete the transformation, just slightly longer than it took me to look under all my chairs and desk for any booby-traps they might have laid in waiting. The stickers I am afraid may never come off which might cause problems on my screen or white board, but every time I looked at them throughout the entire day I could not help with a huge smile. Later tonight I was taken out by the same pair of friends to a dinner including the requisite embarrassing serenade by the waitresses.

I can honestly say I have the best friends a guy can have!

What a series of events

It never ceases to amaze me how exciting our lives can be when we take moments to reflect on how fast we are moving. Early last week I was in the middle of New Mexico giving a talk to several hundred people, middle of the week working on fiscal year ’07 planning for our company’s marketing plan and at the latter part of the week in the middle of a secret service protection detail on our campus. I can certainly say that I ma most decisively not bored. But lets talk about the excitement from Friday.

The day began at the typical crazy 4am start, arriving at work at the only slightly less crazy 5:30. I began to gather needed supplies and make ready for the task of the day, helping coordinate command and control for the security of our CEO, the Governor of CA, and not the least, The President of the United States. I bring our mobile command post to the back of our main building on campus, directly adjacent to the key building of the day. The only soul around is a single secret service agent reading a book in his car while his bomb sniffing dog gently nuzzles his hand. My counterpart and I begin the drawn out process of setting up all the capabilities in our command vehicle including the raising of a 75 foot mast to gain a network signal, setting up half a dozen IP phones, as well as camera images from our entire campus. Soon San Jose police begin to arrive and look for direction as to where begin their own set-up. Due to a meeting later that day I am dressed like an authority in a nice black suit, somehow that must make me appear to be in charge. I try to tell them that in the great big totem pole of command, I am simply the dirt holding it up, somehow they seemed to agree we all fit that same category. With that I began helping them arrange their dozens of police cars, two horse trailers, dozens more motorcycles and all other necessary supplies. All told they had almost 400 officers assigned to the task of protecting this event.

Interestingly enough once some of the police’s senior leadership saw the capabilities in this cutting edge command vehicle and the fact they could monitor all the operations on the entire campus without relying simply on radio descriptions we were soon inundated with police and fire senior leadership. In fact the chief of police was actually watching over our shoulder, fun until reports come in of a hummer entering into a secure zone plastered with protest signs and with people hanging out the windows. However with the help of some incredibly talented tech people we had it on screen and fully monitored before the first police car pulled up less than 30 seconds later. It was a good moment. There were other brief scares and other activities which I feel would be inappropriate to talk about here, but suffice to say it was not boring.

So although this whole event was hyped up to the nth degree, with major streets all around the campus completely closed off and an entire populace asked to work from home, there was a tangible energy that pervaded the day. They of course think of everything, a fence line hundreds of feet away from the rear of the building is blockaded by a dozen buses to prevent a gunman from hiding in the bushes, and other preparations which even I would not reveal in this forum. But the adrenalin rush was tangible, and one wonders if the aids and entourage ever gets tired of it. Their exit was only a few blocks away to where two gun ships and two transport helicopters were ready to whisk them away to their next stop in Palo Alto. Interestingly enough there was supposed to be anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 protesters for the president’s visit, however due to some smart work by the police a vast majority were unable to get close enough to satisfy their goals so instead they abandoned our location and turned to Palo Alto. Our police leadership gets the call that the police up at Stanford were quickly being overrun by protesters who were performing sit-in protests in every public street. So on command decision almost 400 officers to a caravan consisting of horse trailers, motorcycles, SUVs, and cruisers preceded code 3 up our main highway to back up their fellow officers. That must have been a sight to see with well over 100 vehicles. I jokingly asked the Captain if I could tag along in my personal vehicle to beat the traffic on my way home. Alas no dice.

Later that day I traded my suit for a pair of jeans to meet a friend for some tapas and a quick movie, Thank you for Smoking. I highly recommend the movie if you have the time, but certainly bring someone along that would be willing and able to engage in a bit of discussion afterwards for this movie does more than entertain it brings up questions of freedom of thought and expression. A great cast and a fantastic dialogue, certainly a must rent on DVD if you miss the theater showing. As for me, well for now I think I might just take a bit of a nap to help recover.

Right by the streetpole in the middle of the picture you can see Marine one, on the left the two gun ships. 

Protesters at the end of the street, kept a goodly distance away.  

A sampling of the officers in their debrief. A great group who did a fantastic job and had fun doing it. 

Just a few motorcycles, and these are the ones not included in the motorcade.  

An adjunct to the command post. Seems to be a mess, but it worked. 

I survived, but what a story

Now you know me, I could not just have an uneventful journey back from the confines of the desert to the calm chaos of the city. But more on that later, I had the whole day planned like any other good business trip.

My flight was to leave at precisely 6:10, considering the airport is all of about 8 blocks from the hotel and traffic is not a major factor in the southwest leaving hotel at precisely 5:05 was sufficient. All packed up, car waiting, and we are off to the races in calm relaxation. Arriving at the one room airport I walk in and am greeted by the only person in the airport working behind the ticket counter with the following exchange in conversation:

Agent: “You must be going to Alberquerque.”

Me: “Nope, going to Denver”

Agent: “You just missed your flight, should be taking off right now.”

Me: “That can’t be right, flight doesn’t leave until 6:10”

Agent: “It does everyday, and right now it is 6:15”

Me: “Sorry but no, it is 5:15”

Agent: “You must be staying in town, there is a time change between the airport and the hote”

Me: “Seriously, you are kidding”

Suffice to say she was not kidding. Well not one to be shocked to inaction I quickly grab my trusted cell phone and call my travel office. After an excruciating 10 minute wait time I finally get an agent who tells me they can get me out at 3pm, nothing soon. The agent overhearing one side of the conversation queries me if I want to go to Albuquerque in 15 minutes. So I have another conversation:

Agent: “If you want to go to Albuquerque you have about 10 minutes”

Me to Travel “If I was in Albuquerque, can you get me to San Francisco?”

Travel: “But you are in Farmington”

Me: “Work with me, can you get me out??”

Travel: “Yes I can, a 8:25 flight but….”

Me to Agent: “Here is my credit card, whatever get me on this plane”

Me to Travel: “Book the plane call me when I land in Albuquerque with my ticket”

Travel: “But we how will…”

Agent: “It is going to be a grand total of $97, we need to ask some questions…”

Me to Travel: “Book it I, I trust you, got to go”

Me to Agent: “You are beautiful, make it happen”

Ticket in hand run and get on my little tiny plane to Albuquerque. Ironically enough the exact same pilot and co-pilot from my plane from Phoenix were flying me out the next day to Albuquerque. I felt like telling my fellow passengers that these guys (well guy and girl) are good, I know them. We land and now I have 30 minutes to go to the ticket counter to get my ticket on United, run through security, and get on my plane. Jog over to United ticket counter, they tell me we are too close to take-off and they can only put me on stand-by for next flight unless by some miracle I can run through security in time. Now in all out run for security I slide under rope lines, leap over kids, and circumnavigate the maze of elderly struggling to find their ID. Manage to make it through security in a total time of 3 minutes 24 seconds, a new personal best for me. Moving mach 4 through the terminal I get to the gate 7 minutes before the doors close. Collapsing in my seat I got to tell you…

I RULE!

The stars were in line, the tea leaves splayed in my favor, somehow the comedy of errors worked in my favor. Probably didn’t hurt that in my first flight, there were a number of people who saw my presentation and all wanted to spend the flight talking about it and telling me how exciting my talk was. Personally I think that my competition was just unusually low, but it never hurts to hear some praise. Actually I received a glass or crystal award for best presentation at the event so it can’t be all bad. Anyway I made it home alive with just a couple stories to tell.

Before I sign off, a moment of silence for today at 5:30 san Francisco celebrated its hundred year anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. Many lost their lives, virtually everyone lost property, may it never happen again to the extent we experienced. May we learn from the past.

Bump Jump and Roll

In case I do not make it home alive tomorrow this might be a final entry, but more on this later.

I have arrived in Farmington New Mexico which for those of you who are not up on your geography is in the middle of no where in New Mexico, about four hours from Albuquerque. A town of about 40,000 was hosting a reasonably sized technology conference of a few hundred people and requested a presentation from me. Now although I have mentioned before that I have upgraded my wardrobe slightly, me in a full suit and tie in the middle of New Mexico was like horns on a bunny. Anyway the presentation went well and I get to fly home tomorrow, but now we return to my sedate sentence from the start. Flying into Farmington is like no experience I have had since I was in a small prop plane hit by lightning and forced to take an emergency landing.

The setting, I am leaving from Phoenix to Farmington in a small prop jet of approximately 8 seats. Approaching the plane all the cockpit windows are covered with safety briefing cards to keep the plane relatively cool in the desert heat. The captain of the plane actually was the one to take our bags and put them in the back, and hands out bottles of water and air sickness bags before we take off (situational irony here). Wonder if she gets triple salary for pilot, stewardess, and grounds crew. So I get into the plane and am greeted by a blast of freezing air, there was a major industrial host coming over the barrier in the back blowing cold air to cool the plane (see picture below entry). But no matter, I have been on small planes before. The hour long flight progresses normally enough, worked on my presentation and listened to some music, slightly after the announcement of preparing to land it all changed. Due to air drafts we begin to ride a roller coaster without rails or safety cables. Going over the most remote of deserts we begin to descend at most unnatural speeds where I learn later they try to minimize the turbulence. We get a view of the airport prior to a late turn and see this impossibly small airport built on a mesa, which for those of you not familiar picture a plateau. Turns out that mesa’s in the desert contain incredibly hot air, yet the valleys surrounding it are filled with updrafts of cold air. This combination can make for some of the harshest turbulence apparently in the country, well that and the coupling with one of the windiest cities in the south west. Suffice to say it was an experience that would prefer not to relive, oh wait I get to do it all tomorrow at 6am.

Nah, I don’t think we will crash but these thoughts do go through your mind when you are so close to the cockpit and the walls are so thin you can hear their animated conversation and the alarms from the controls. For one who is not trained in the sources of those alarms, well my fellow passengers (all men interestingly enough) we were all trading looks. Chalk it up to another life experience and wish me luck tomorrow.

Good night

Notice the subtle hose pipe in the back blasting cold air into the confined plane. 

Old friends, new adventures

After a fantastic couple of days spent with parents and grandma it was time to return home to a bit or reminiscing and partying. Yes my college roommate and one of my closest friends was in town for work and was going to spend the day with me. Sure we did the usual boring things like tour golden gate park and see some of the city, but the fun began when the sun went down. It all began at dinner with one of my SF friends T, and a couple of her friends as well. All told there were 6 of us at this great grill right off of Castro Street. Now I need to tell you my friend C is a great guy but like me coming from the Midwest we have been a bit sheltered in some of our life experiences. Walking through the Castro district for the first time can be a bit surreal the first time, more so when spending almost your entire life in small towns, but the night had just barely begun. Toward the end of dinner we were trying to decide where to begin our club hopping. Some of the choices mentioned was a gay bar hosting the annual golden dildo award another option was a bondage festival, can you tell one of our friends at the table was a bit on the gay orientation? Quickly begging the indulgences of the group I asked if we could temper it down just a bit for the sake of some of our other guests. So instead we continued our revelry at a gay biker bar, for who can begin a night without a good biker bar? The crowd was colorful and certainly more than a little entertaining. To try and describe this bar would be more than pointless for one needs to experience it for themselves.

A single drink was all that was required to get a full taste of that bar, now it was time to move on to the main attraction, a club that was hosting a fashion show. The show was to consist of men in Armani suits on the men and swimsuits on the woman, can there be a more perfect combination? All was well as we waited for the show to begin but as show time approached the crowd became increasingly more well how shall we say it ghetto. The men that were with the models were incredibly full of themselves, most times wearing such designer outfits complete with leather trench coats, sunglasses and attitudes to match. Mind altering drugs were certainly on the menu, but when a couple of revelers arrived with matching guns under the coats we felt it was best to move to a club with a more friendly audience. Just a couple of blocks away we found just such a locale and proceeded to watch inebriated members of both sexes dance it up and attempt any possible random hookups. Granted the former was valid for us, although the latter not so much. In never ceases to amaze me the level many of us will go to to meet a random one-night stand, men and women alike. People watching locales have no second next to a club at midnight. Finally most of our group wonders off so it is simply C, P (the gay member of the group) and myself. He invites us to one last bar that he frequents before we call it a night.

For those of you who know SF, I believe it was called the powerhouse. Again words can not do it justice, however vintage gay porn adorned the tv screens, while flyers for all manner of events in the city were papered around the walls and tables. I do believe we can chalk this up to new experiences.

Overall a fun evening with friends in some of my cities finest. Although still a soggy city we continue to enjoy it at is finest. Tomorrow I fly off to New Mexico to give a talk at a large technology forum, but I believe more on that later. For now I will nurse my hangover a bit.

Pure and Complete Relaxation

Let me start by saying I have some of the most wonderful friends a guy can ask for. I may not be dating the love of my life or live on a mansion one the side of golden gate park, but my friends are just the best. For a late birthday gift J decided that for the guy who has everything including a stressful job, a day of pampering was in order at the Nob Hill Spa. Yes she bought me a day at a spa, a new and strangely unfamiliar experience for me. For the guys out there like myself I will try to reveal some of the closely guarded secrets inside these exclusive houses of luxury.

The entrance is benign enough, directly next to a posh hotel, with two striking ladies waiting behind a counter with bright smiles on a Saturday morning. We give our last names and after a couple of quick waivers reminding us that Jacuzzis and saunas are hot places we were hand walked into the garden of Eden. There were a couple of alcoves on the way identified as tranquility sitting areas with perfectly arranged Japanese tea sets on a wooden tables surrounded by luxurious brown leather chairs. We then went down a wide circular staircase into the heart of the spa. Locker rooms awaited us with soft carpeting and hushed attendants walking around in slippers and quiet smiles. A quick change into a bathing suit and bathrobe and we slip out to the common pool/Jacuzzi area. Although both calm pools designed to not have a single lip but instead seamlessly blend from patio to water looked inviting we instead circumnavigated out to the patio for the first non-rainy day in many weeks. A couple of glasses of ice cold water with lemon or cucumber helped begin to relax the mind as we gratefully sank into super plus lunge chairs overlooked downtown San Francisco. A couple of hours catching up with a close friend is never a waste of time especially when spending that time soaking up some rays from a long awaited sun.

But then the time comes and without a whisper a woman comes out to the patio and calls our respective names. We are individually led to the massage room. You enter a narrow room filled with soft indirect light no brighter than a darkened movie theater. Soft tones fill your ears, not from any known song but electronically compiled collections designed to be both pleasing and just as quickly forgotten. Candles are lit along a couple of the corners basking the room with faint shadows that dance to the random movement of the music. A sink along one wall and a massage table fills the majority of the space inside. My personal guide to the garden is Liz, who quietly closes the door, welcomes me and bids me to make myself comfortable on the table while she steps outside. It takes me a minute or so before I realize that this a clue to strip off the bathing suit and return to my birthday suit under the soft sheets of the table. Laying face down with music and smells of massage oil filling the air the pull to sleep begins to overcome my body. She returns with a quiet knock and a quick question if there any particular places she should focus on. I mumble a general, ‘everywhere will be great’ and she quietly begins. Now this I can not describe, for the next 50 minutes passed like a blur interruption only by her requesting I turn over to my back. Sleep or a state of deep meditation overcame my senses a number of times. I only remember a couple of particulars like when she wrapped my feet in warm washcloths while massaged the tissue underneath. Or the sweetly organic smelling oil that she rubbed deep into my body. By the end of the 50 minutes I was in pure paradise. Once complete she again stepped outside providing me a little privacy to get up and return my swimsuit. A complete head rush ensued with even lifting the body into a half sitting position. Walking was completely beyond me for a couple of minutes. Finally I shuffled out to find her waiting just on the other side of the door with a glass of ice lemon water to help refresh the body. I was led by another attendant back into the locker room where I quickly moved into the sauna to simmer out any residual toxins still in the body. 20 minutes lying down on the oak benches with a cold cucumber soaked washcloth brought on a comfortable sweat to mix with the oil, followed by a refreshing ice cold shower. Dressing and returning to the fore mentioned tranquility seating area to replenish the body with some fruit and tea completed the day. Never before have I ever felt so invigorated and ready to take on the world. There was absolutely no pain anywhere in the body and mentally awake and alert. This ladies and gentleman is what relaxation feels like. Thank you J for a fabulous birthday gift.

The beautiful part of this gift is that it was unknowingly perfectly timed for this week was one of my most stressful in recent memory. With all types of executive leadership fire drills and more initiatives that one can shake a stick at we were all busting to complete our deliverables and help each other. I don’t think I had more than 20 minutes between the hours of 7am and 6pm any day last week where I was not on the phone in some meeting or talking to some team member in a far flung location like Israel or Amsterdam. Thankfully next week I simply have one day in the office and then home to Baltimore to spend a few days with family for Passover. More on that later, for now need to catch up on some emails as clearly yesterday was not a day for work.

Build them up, knock them down

There are wonderful people out there whom every time you hear them speak publicly or when they speak directly to you they make you feel like a million bucks. These people do not pander, but yet when they speak to you just in their manner of speaking and even what they say they make the sun come out and create a feeling of optimism that you could take on the world. These people tend to be natural leaders as they draw followers like moths to a flame; some use their powers for good, others for cult followings. But that is not my focus of this entry; rather it is of those people who take every opportunity to knock down those around them.

These individuals also rise in power but they do so by building themselves up on the backs of others. They look for situations they can benefit from and people they can gain from, all others they tend to ignore. What is remarkable is how you can take a beautiful day where everything has been going well and a quick 15 meeting can literally drain any good feelings like a vampire slowly sucking out your life serving blood. It is a shame these people also tend to make leadership positions for they are an absolute pain to work with, alas this was neither the first nor the last time. Just take a breath, and move on.

Otherwise life continues to move at Mach 2, not quite maximum speed but darn close. Unfortunately the rain continues to fall which limits the number of outside activities we can do to help burn off some stress. In fact many areas in this area have received over 250% of our normal rainfall for the month of April and it is only the first week of the month. Suffice to say it is going to be a very green spring, well if we ever get sun.

A great friend of mine is treating me to a day at a spa for my birthday, ironically last birthday but my travel schedule has prevented an earlier scheduling. No I have never been to a Spa besides the occasional gym in Vegas, but am looking forward to it. I have been told it can revolutionize your life and completely cleanse the body and soul. The only concern of course that one might get addicted and begin to crave spa days like woman crave their manicures and pedicures. Well let’s not worry about that yet, lets just enjoy a day of relaxation.

As for other things in the world of Matthew, believe it or not it has been focused so completely around work there is nothing interesting to talk about which is really a shame, hopefully some better stories in the weeks to come.

A Business ADD Society?

The other day I was at work and received an email request for a briefing on a certain subject, but instead of a verbal briefing this was requested in written form. Not a problem, I will type up a memo and get it out ASAP, but here was the catch they wanted it in PowerPoint format. I am sorry, let me make sure I understand this correctly, you want me to create slides to explain the full implications of a proposed event, the alternate options and the full evaluations of all said options in the form of a bullets on PowerPoint slides? Lets put that aside for a moment, on the plane flying back from my trip in New York I was sitting next to a high priced leader of a major pharmaceutical company who was reading results from some study (seats are very close together). He had printed what appeared to be over 100 slides, each with no more than 5 or 6 bullets on each one.

Have we lost the ability to actually read briefs in paragraph format, have we lost the ability to take the time and actually read versus skimming? Do we have business ADD, or attention deficit disorder? When our great country was founded and important matters of state were being decided, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of words were written to help understand the full implications of a proposal. These were written as essays to newspapers that nearly every citizen read to help form their opinion. Now we have newspapers like the USA Today consisting almost exclusively from pretty pictures and articles no longer than a couple hundred words. I can’t remember the last time I received a submission from a business associate in word format as compared to slides. Have video games and television eliminated our ability to calmly sit down and read through an entire brief to help make decisions? It certainly appears we are moving in that direction.

On lighter notes, we are still receiving no end to rain here in CA, with record number of days in March numbering at 26. We are dripping from every port, water pooling at every intersection. The positive result is that every hill, lawn and tiny piece of dirt on the side of the road is the most brilliant green ever seen in natural vegetation. Truly this is the CA we know and love, at least when it is not a downpour. Which leads to a small gripe, bad drivers. Now bad drivers is nothing new, nor is the lack of utilization of tiny feature only available apparently on low end vehicles, that being a turn signal. Driving home today in an absolute downpour I am ok with vehicles not using their headlights, granted I can’t see you until I am right on your grill, but ok you might have simply forgotten like I have once before. But slamming between lanes without so much as a warning from a blinker, well that is just plain rude. To be honest I am ok with someone cutting me off, as long as they had the decency to let me know that they are cutting me off, a simple signal. Alas, it is not to be for some.

So it is not just an edition of complaints, I actually need to expand on some of the positive highlights this weekend brought about. Due in no small part to 6 moves and a senior age of over 12 years my bike had seen much better days. With brakes, derailer, and gears shot requiring replacement it was cost effective to simply replace the bike. Well a not so short shopping expedition later and I walked away with a very nice average mountain bike. I promptly took advantage of a short pause in the daily downpour to take it for a modest test ride of 12 miles. Man it feels good to be back on the saddle again. Ok maybe not the saddle itself, those cheeks are not used to those seats, but otherwise what a rush! That was followed by a trip to the Monterey Aquarium with two of my closest friends in CA. The fishes were slippery, the sharks filled with teeth, but the company was both entertaining and riveting. I have to say it is an absolute pleasure having friends here that I love spending time with and going places. Next stop, maybe a trip to Disneyland, or maybe we should just stick with the zoo?